Metal School

After reading:

Black Sabbath - Liked some of the songs, like war pigs, paranoid and the one about the jet fighters
Deep Purple - Who? (I have heard of them)
Rush - Who?
Led Zeppelin - They are great, but I'm not that big of a fan
ZZ Top - Have 'Tush' but not heard anything else...
Budgie - Who?
Queen - Who? Kidding! They are AWESOME.
Iron Maiden - Also awesome, but not keen on the new album.
Ynqwie J. Malmsteen - Have one track but I seriously want to get more.

late in this ( http://www.enworld.org/showthread.ph...2&page=1&pp=40 ) thread, it occurs to me that we older metalheads may not be doing the best job of passing along the history of our preferred music to the youngbloods, especially those who came to the genre alone and without guidance.

I laid down some basic background info on Black Sab, Rush, Deep Purple, and Budgie in posts #167 & #169 in that thread, but I know that's not an exhaustive list of important foundational bands.

So, Old-School Metalheads, lay down the knowlege for your younger bretheren- who should every metalhead know and respect for their contributions to the genre, if not actually enjoy, and some of their key tunes.

So, Old-School Metalheads, lay down the knowlege for your younger bretheren- who should every metalhead know and respect for their contributions to the genre, if not actually enjoy, and some of their key tunes.

As a 'youngblood', at 19, I can attest that I know absolutely nothing about 'old skool' metal. Nope, nothing whatsoever.

I got my first taste of metal (as it were) via Limp Bizkit... I am thankfully much more mature in my musical selection now then compared with that drivel, but up until about a year and a half ago, I stuck mainly with nu metal bit. Slipknot, Mudvayne, Korn, Marilyn Manson, etc. And while these bands still hold some major favourites, I'm no longer so jaded. I don't have a big hate-on for anything that isn't nu metal anymore.

Now, I love everything from the bubbly power metal of Blind Guardian to the raw, razor-edged black metal band Nargaroth to the brutal viking sound-scape of Amon Amarth to the bouncy groove metal of Machine Head to the... well, you get the point. I *LOVE* metal!

But, I still know crap about Black Sabbath, the big-daddy of metal. Ironic, I suppose.

Well, Ny, you follow the linky, you'll see what I had to say about post-Ozzy Black Sab & some other bands.

Black Sab with Ozzy is a bit different. Their early work usually had a more dirge-like pace, currently popular with some of the darker modern bands. While later incarnations of the band never abandoned that style, they did do more uptempo songs than during the Ozzy era. They dabbled in all kinds of supernatural imagery (The Wizard, N.I.B), drugs (Sweet Leaf), Sci Fi (Into the Void), and even straight-up folksy instrumentals (Laguna Sunrise). According to a recent interview concerning their latest release, were it not for Geezer Butler, Sab would have had much less powerful lyrics- Ozzy usualy didn't know jack-all about the lyrics he was singing.

Because of Tony Iommi's disabilities, you're not going to hear a lot of lightning-like solos, but his solos' chord structures with occasional flares always seem to be a good fit with the song.

Motorhead is kind of like a heavier, punkier version of AC/DC, or a metall-er version of the Ramones...in the sense that they have a sound and they stick to in, and if you've heard one of their songs, you've got a solid feel for everything else they've written. IOW, if you liked Ace of Spades, you'd also like Bomber, Orgasmatron, Killed by Death, Stone Dead Forever, and so many other tunes.

KISS is the band that probably bridges the gap between hard rock & metal more than any other band of the 1970s. Some of their stuff wouldn't feel out of place on a Sabbath album, others sound like Van Halen- its not an accident that they're one of the bands cited by many of the glam/hairmetal bands of the 1980s as a major influence.

KISS is the band that probably bridges the gap between hard rock & metal more than any other band of the 1970s. Some of their stuff wouldn't feel out of place on a Sabbath album, others sound like Van Halen- its not an accident that they're one of the bands cited by many of the glam/hairmetal bands of the 1980s as a major influence.

And what a great segue - my next lesson is going to be "Alice Cooper and KISS, Spawning the Genre."

"I may be unconscious, but at least I still look good!" - - Me (at the Halfling Musketeers game GenCon '06)

On one hand, taking away their weapons is a dead giveaway that they will need them. On the other hand, by the time conflict starts the players will already have opened the rulebooks and found the parts that deal with bare-handed combat, performing disarm moves, and using improvised weapons. Players may blunder through dialog with shocking ineptitude, forget the name of the country they are in, or get confused about which side they are on, but once it comes time to roll for initiative they all turn into Sun Tzu. - Shamus Young DM of the Rings

Okay kiddies, Thunderfoot is not my name due to some sort of strange dwarven character I played, it was handed down as my street name because of my feet (Duh) as I played double bass - yes I am a drummer. So sit back and take notes, you may want to grab a soda/beer/blood and possibly something that will clog your arteries, I hear live bat is good.

Let's start with the very basics, some vocabulary -

"Heavy Metal" was coined in the song Born to Be Wild by Steppenwolf. The song intended to point the phrasing to motorcycles, but some how got applied to the heavy rock sound (for at the time it WAS heavy) of the song and started a new wave of music in Britain and America.

"Wearing the Leather(s)" - Rob Halford of Judas Priest is the first known metalhead to wear leather. At the time his homosexuality was buried and known only to a few close associates, in the male homosexual scene, bondage was all the rage in the mid to late 70s. When Halford began to wear his bondage gear on stage, the look took off, accompanied by their breakout hit Hell Bent For Leather, a fashion movement was formed.

"Hard Rock" - The more melodic younger brother of Heavy Metal. Hard rock was the original term coined for the eventual 'heavy rock' movement. Hard rock is any music with loud distorted guitars, big drums, heavy flat line bass, but a more melodic spin on the music to include keyboards, light distintive vocals and harmoized guitar parts. There are several genres within or related to hard rock such as Arena Rock, Hair Metal, Pop Metal and Progressive Pop (qv below). Artists that have fallen into this category over the years include but are not limited to: Aerosmith, AC/DC, Alice Cooper, Asia, Boston, Cream, Foghat, GTR, Journey, KISS, Queen, Rush, Styx, Triumph, Van Halen, Vixen, Whitesnake, Yes, Zebra

"Arena Rock" - Hard Rock style popular between the late 70s and mid 80s, so named because the stage shows were so large they could only be performed in arenas. Concerts usually included extended guitar solos, drum solos, keyboard solos and even bass solos. Often times the crowd is encouraged to sing along and pyrotechnical and laser displays are the norm. Alice Cooper and KISS set the bar high with their early theatrical shows so many groups later had to come up with new and inovative ways to draw in the crowds. The best arenas show artists as reviewed in a ton of resources included (but are not limited to) AC/DC, Foreigner, Journey, Motley Crew, Rush, Scorpions, Styx, Triumph, Van Halen, and ZZ Top.

"Hair Metal/Pop Metal" - As Heavy Metal progressed through the 80s the later period saw a reprise of the 70s glam rock style invade the leather look of Britian. If leather was homo-erotic than wearing ladies lingere was even more so. Began in American in the New York club scene by veteran rockers Twisted Sister, Dee Snyder is quoted as saying, "our wives and girlfirends would do our make-up and hair and we would shop for clothing in the 'oh my god I'm fat' ladies departments." The look and sound was orginally fresh and cutting edge, but by the downfall of metal to the grunge era of the 90s, the 'Pop Metal" tag, where bands were engineered by producers and image consultants, started to water down and over use the 'power ballad'. Bands include (you know the rest): Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Dokken, Guns n' Roses, Kix, Motley Crew, Poison, Quiet Riot, Stryper, Trixter, Vixen, and Warrant.

"Progressive Pop/Rock/Metal" - This group of music is the most hard to define, while the hard edge is there, the musicianship of the individual players often times presses the very envelope of known music. Often times a band in this category will achieve commercial success with a single song or series of songs gaining new 'fans' only to have those same 'fans' disappear when they play their other selections. The lyrics are often deep in meaning, touching on political and social aspects that popular music shies away from. Groups that live here are: Black Sabbath (with Ronnie James Dio), Cream, Dream Theater, Emerson Lake and Palmer (Powell) or ELP, Kansas, Kings X, Rainbow (with Ronnie James Dio), Rush, Yngwie Malmsteen, Frank Zappa and Zebra.

"Death Metal/Black Metal" - Music form originating in the mid 80s as a result of the constant right wing protest groups touting Satanic influence of Heavy Metal music. Originally this music was musically no different than 'traditional' metal but used more minor keys and dimished chord progressions, as the style progressed the vocals became less pronounced and more of a 'growl' than a true metal 'scream'. Bands are not limited to the following: Black Angel, Corrosion of Conformity, Deth, Embalmed, GWAR, King Diamond, Rancid, Slayer, Voivod, and Witchblade.

"Speed Metal/Thrash" Speed metal was all about the speed baby, it wasn't enough to be loud and hard, you had to push 250 beats per minute (bpm). The music was noted by its all out assualt on the eardrums by 68th note guitar licks, quadruple triplets on the drums and a steady 'dubba-dubba" stroked on the bass. vocals ranged from audible to mindless gibberish sometimes melodically sang and other times just yelled and squalled. Thrash was the fusing of this new speed mentality with eneregy of punk infusing it with odd times, sudden breaks and other farsical but musically appealing techniques. Bands of note include: Anthrax, Megadeath, The Misfits, Motorhead, and the granddaddies of the genre Metallica (Please note that this was before the And Justice For ALL album when they became "ALTERNNICA.")

"Christian Metal" - the musical answer to the 'death metal' scene. Infused with positive lyrics and a message of salvation, this alternative to doom and gloom was looked upon by the 'true metal' community as a moronic step-child, however, just as metal asked to keep an open mind, further listening reveals many of these groups were quite talented. The "CM" tag actually spanned all of the known accepted forms of metal described above so you could literally find the positive equivallent to anything you may find aurally pleasing. Bands are listed with appropriate style behind name in parenths: Angelica (Progressive.Pop), Bloodgood (Hard Rock), Bride (Hard Rock/Arena), Holy Soldier (Hair/Arena), Jet Circus (Arena/Progressive), Mana (Hard Rock/Arena), Shout (Arena), Stryper (Hair/Pop/Arena), Tourniquet (Speed/Thrash), Throne (White/Black/), and Xalt (Arena/Pop)

That's enough for now. Next time we'll go over history Alice Cooper and KISS.

"I may be unconscious, but at least I still look good!" - - Me (at the Halfling Musketeers game GenCon '06)

On one hand, taking away their weapons is a dead giveaway that they will need them. On the other hand, by the time conflict starts the players will already have opened the rulebooks and found the parts that deal with bare-handed combat, performing disarm moves, and using improvised weapons. Players may blunder through dialog with shocking ineptitude, forget the name of the country they are in, or get confused about which side they are on, but once it comes time to roll for initiative they all turn into Sun Tzu. - Shamus Young DM of the Rings